Editing the Command Line

When working at a command prompt, you often enter the same command several times, or enter several similar commands. If you make a mistake when typing a command line, you don't want to retype the whole thing-you just need to fix the part that was wrong. Windows includes a feature that recalls previous commands and allows you to edit them on the current command line. Table below lists these editing keys and what they do.

Command-Line Editing Keys

The command-line recall feature maintains a history of the commands entered during the Command Prompt session. To display this history, press F7, which opens a window that shows your recently entered commands. Scroll through the history with the arrow keys, and then press Enter to reuse the selected command, or press the Left Arrow key to place the selected text on the command line without executing the command. (This allows you to edit the command before executing it.)

It's not necessary to display the pop-up window to use the command history. You can scroll through the history within the Command Prompt window with the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys.

The F8 key provides a useful alternative to the Up Arrow key. The Up Arrow key moves you through the command history to the top of the command buffer and then stops. F8 does the same, except that when you get to the top of the buffer, it cycles back to the bottom. Furthermore, F8 displays only commands in the buffer that begin with whatever you typed before you pressed F8. Type d at the command prompt (don't press Enter), and then press F8 a few times. You'll cycle through recently entered commands that start with d, such as Dir and Del. Now type e (after the d), and press F8 a few more times. You'll cycle through Del commands along with any others that start with de. You can save a lot of keystrokes using F8 if you know the first letters of the command you're looking for.